Obituary
Howard James Payne, 1930-2014.
HOWARD James Payne was born in Northam in 1930 and attended both Northam Primary School and Northam Senior High School.
He learned the piano with Miss Davey and Mr Brabazon taught him the cornet in the St John Ambulance Band.
In 1944 he sat the Post master General's examination and after achieving the highest marks in the state was posted to Wiluna which was then a busy town.
He delivered telegrams which sadly, considering the time, must have included sad ones announcing the death or wounding of a serviceman.
Howard was excellent at Morse code which he had learned in the Boy Scouts at Northam.
He kept up his skills by completing various courses offered by correspondence through the Melbourne GPO.
These skills allowed him with another staff member to open the first post office at Big Bell.
This was followed by transfers to various towns within Western Australia including Nungarin, Tammin, Northam and York.
In 1954, Howard applied to go east and was transferred to Brewarrina PO in NSW.
There he met Margaret Rand, a nursing sister with the Australian Inland Mission.
They married in 1955 in Sydney.
In the succeeding years he transferred to Balgowlah, Canberra and then Manly by which time Howard and Margaret had two children, Glenys and Geoffrey.
It was about this period that Howard joined the Brookvale Bus Depot Brass Band playing the euphonium.
His lifelong love of music is reflected in his children.
Glenys is a teacher of clarinet and piano and with her husband Gerard, also a music teacher, has travelled and taught overseas.
In 1986 Geoff entered the World Trumpet Competition held in Budapest, Hungary and beat 59 other players to win first prize, the first Australian to do so.
Geoff has been the principal trumpet player in the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra for more than 20 years.
When Howard retired from being postmaster he and Margaret spent a large amount of their retirement involved in different types of charity work.
Howard passed away peacefully at his home in Beacon Hill, NSW, on June 27. He was a man liked and respected by all.
